For the survival of a people suffering from the oppression of two states, but who remain their own language and culture, it is essential to be able to build their own educational system. Basic Spanish and French legislation and judges radically limit the decisions that can be taken in the educational field in the Basque Country. Therefore, it would be a fiction to think that an Education Law allows developing its own educational model. Under these conditions, the practice of the “Basque educational system” in a law limited to the CAPV does not respond to reality, both because the educational systems are from the states, and because there are no references to Navarra and Iparralde.

This educational system does not respond at all to the challenges we have as a people. One of the main tasks of the “Basque” school should be, on the one hand, the development of quality education and, on the other, the use of the Basque language as a language of study. This would involve the Euskaldunisation of pupils and the linguistic creation of active Euskaldunes, both from the point of view of Basque culture and from the point of view of guaranteeing knowledge of Basque culture, and also in the linguistic sphere. The Basque school should be the axis of national education in Euskera, based on its own curriculum that covers the entire Basque Country. However, this draft Law on Education is far from being an educational law of the Basque Country: neither the Basque curriculum nor the Basque Country itself, for example, are spoken of. The CAPV also imposes the Spanish curricular framework, leaving less and less space for the concretion of subjects and contents.

The immersion model disappears and a triangular or flat model is established. This draft law has eliminated the objective of turning educational centers into respiratory spaces in the Basque Country. “Plurilingualism” is a concrete form and not the Basque, axis and objective of this “Basque educational system”. A triangular linguistic model is established and wagered on (see Title IV). Instead of the Basque, they focus on concrete models of “plurilingualism” and “interculturality”, on the school model proposed to us. As a result, the draft law entails accelerating the substitution and acculturation of the Basque Country. Because with the current model system, and even though model D is very dominant (without measuring oral skills!) half of the students do not exceed the B2 level of Euskera at the end of the ESO, being in Spanish entire speakers of very early ages, so what comes next if there is no need to increase the Spanish school hours? It is not necessary to be an education engineer, increasing the teaching hours in Spanish and (at least) in English and reducing those in Euskera, to know what their effects will be.

75% of Professional Education students study in Spanish at the CAPV. Throwing away the efforts of Euskaldunization of previous courses and making it even more difficult and difficult for the possible Euskaldunization of the world of work. The Vocational Training Act grants the Department of Education the promotion of the Basque model and teaching in Vocational Training (see paragraph 27.2), but the Education Act excludes Vocational Training. Another goal for the leg.

At the end of the ESO level B2 should be reached in the two official languages. Examiners will be the teachers of the students: this is not appropriate. It should have the work of external evaluators, for the sake of the necessary objectivity. Moreover, the bill does not say what would happen if level B2 is not exceeded… it is curious and significant. The level B2 in Spanish is guaranteed for all students, even before the end of the ESO, in a society absolutely castilized and surrounded by Castilian speaking media. Thus, the increase in teaching hours in Spanish makes no sense, except that it is submitted to the Spanish hegemony. Another thing is getting B2 in Basque. Each year we see that the Basque level of the students who have completed the ESO is decreasing, but the new bill entails a reduction in the teaching hours in Basque, not to mention the loss of quality of the subjects taught in English…

What this Education Bill entails is not a stagnation, but a setback and a serious threat. To realise this, it is enough to read the text carefully, regardless of the strange and interested interpretations of the political parties. The lovers of the Basque People would better face this legal attack in the form of “broad agreement”, without wasting time.

Signatories: Dionisio Amundarain Saratsola, Karmelo Landa Mendibe, Joxe Manuel Odriozola Lizarribar, Patxi Salaberri Muñoa, Mª Jesús Iartza Martiarena, Andoni Sarriegi Eskisabel, Jon Aleman Astiz, Karlos Gorrindo Etxeandia